Assassin's Creed: Synchronicity
by SomeoneWhoWritesThings
Summary: A story following Sam, a member of the modern day Assassins as they continue to wage a covert war on the Templars
1. Chapter 1

As I look around the coffee shop I can't help but compare the life I lead with everyone else's, I guess it's true that ignorance is bliss, they all ignore me and don't know who I am or what I do; they don't know what I'm a part of nor do they understand why it has to be done. Except him.

I take a sip of my coffee and thumb through another page in the book I'm reading, keeping him in the periphery of my eye, and staying aware of my surroundings, I can hear the till behind me open and shut, the espresso machine let out its squeals of steam, and the subtle changes to the temperature, I notice everyone around me, talking, laughing, reading or working intently on their electronic devices of all variations; I see him working on a computer, his back to me, he's wearing a white hooded jumper and a pair of jeans, he'd blend in perfectly with the sterility of everything around us, it's all plain and conforming, a basic contrasting colour scheme, the identical chairs and seats at perfect intervals, without my training he'd be the type of person you wouldn't look back at if you passed him in the street, but to me, he might as well be wearing a luminous jacket with "I AM RIGHT HERE!" emblazoned on it, I've heard stories of other people like me being able to just look at someone and know who or what they are, but they're just stories, our training teaches us to pick up on the people who don't want to be noticed, not those that hid their face under a hat or something, but those who fit in too well to our surroundings. I'm not naive enough to believe that he's unaware I'm here, or at the very least, that there is someone here looking for him.

I keep on reading my book and I'm aware that he's looking around him, subtle, but still a little obvious, he sees a woman walk past and turns to look at her as she continues walking, I see his gaze linger a fraction of a second longer, and I instinctively know that he's checking around him to make sure there's no one else here, when he turns back I look up to reach over to the table and grab my coffee again to take a sip, I get a glimpse of the screen on the computer he's using. It's a laptop, about 16" screen, webcam on top, what looks like four windows open, one email, one is a news website, one is blinking orange, so I guess it's a IM window or some form of chat , the fourth I can't see, but I see a status bar in the middle of the screen, I also notice a pen drive plugged into the side, his hand right next to it, I figure he must be moving out soon, he has a delivery to make after all.

The courier tries to play it cool and adjusts himself in his seat to have a look around through the glass, but to also have a look around the shop through the reflection, but again, I pick up on this and go back to my book, The Prince, I smirk at the irony, I'm on my own but I'm still being helped by one of us, as I turn the page, I notice that the courier has started packing up his laptop and affixes the pen drive to a cord around his neck, _clever,_ I think to myself as I take my time to finish my coffee, he stands up and shoulders his backpack and begins to leave, I notice he takes the long way around the coffee shop, probably to draw out some amateurish followers, but I know better, I decide to yawn and stretch and creak my head just far enough to see him leave, I mark my page in my book and put it into my satchel and finish my coffee before I stand up and walk to the toilet. A moment later I emerge and leave the shop, setting off in the direction the courier was walking.

After a few moments I pick up his tail, he's walking past a bookstore, I keep a generous distance between us, I casually look around and stop to tie my shoelace before moving on again, always keeping him in my line of sight, but only just, it doesn't pose any particular problem, but it's just to make sure any counter-surveillance that's following him doesn't notice me, I see him going down an escalator, I already know the layout to this place, so I stay on this floor and decide to follow him from above, making sure that I'm not getting followed while I'm following him, when he gets to the bottom, a woman approaches him, I don't recognise her, and apparently neither does he, because I see a man halfway down the escalator take a sudden step forward, moving his hand to his right hip, _So the bastard has company then_ I think to myself, I must remember to thank that woman if I ever meet her again; nonetheless I press on and decide to take the next escalator down to the same floor since we'll be approaching an exit soon and if I get made, it'll be difficult to track them once we're outside. The courier and his bodyguard keep moving forward, the bodyguard is more aware than usual, that startle with the woman probably made him more vigilant; it shouldn't pose a problem though, I've dealt with worse. I stop and pretend to window shop as they cross the shaded threshold into the sunlight, I give them five seconds and then I step out after them.

The sunlight is beaming down around me, the blue in the skies looks infinite and there's not a cloud in sight, I momentarily enjoy the slight breeze before I continue on. It isn't hard to pick up their trail again, the buildings are so tall and cramped together there was only so many ways they could've gone, but they opted for straight ahead, I had to work fast now, no doubt they would get some form of transport soon to get them to their destination and once they were in motion, I doubt I'd be able to intercept them without resorting to 'Plan B' and we were trained to avoid that where possible. They continue on, a ten foot gap between them, close enough to protect him at a moment's notice, but far enough to ensure they both can't be attacked at once. Suddenly, a door opens in front of them and the bodyguard looks at it briefly then moves up quickly to the courier and whispers something, I don't think he's asking him the time, I notice a change in their posture, I'm 100 yards away, but its considerably obvious, the shoulders hunch up, he adjusts his backpack nervously and the bodyguard moves him arm to his right hip and holds it there; I begin to speed up my pace, all the while an uncomfortable feeling is settling in my gut, I know what's going to happen. They suddenly take a right and go down an alley, as they disappear from view, I see the courier look back down the street to where I am and even from here, I can tell he's both afraid and curious. I feel the adrenaline surge through my veins and a single coherent thought enter my mind: I've been made.

Quickly I move forward to follow them, I only have a few minutes before more of them come, or he erases or destroys the pen drive. I quickly glance into the alley to see where they are; its empty, at the bottom of the stairs though I see a small puddle that is rippling slightly, they're not far ahead. I walk down soundlessly, watching both my front and my back, making sure there are no nasty surprises waiting for me. As I reach the bottom step, where the puddle is, I hear a noise to my right and turn suddenly, ready to strike, but I see a stone hit the ground and come to rest, it came from behind me, where my blindside is now exposed to. I hear the sound of a gun cocking behind my head, then a voice.

"Hands where I can see them... slowly" it ordered. I decided it was best to comply, for now. I raise my hands, placing them on top of my head.

"Turn around, again, slowly or you'll get a 9mm in the back of the head" the voice said again, I think I could hear a tone of amusement at the control he had on me at this point in time.

I nod and begin to turn, slowly, but promptly so as not to give the impression I'm planning something, as I turn, I see the bodyguard pointing a Glock 17 at my face, the courier behind him in a corner, holding onto his backpack, apparently frozen with fear, which was fine with me, it suits my needs perfectly.

"Place the satchel on the ground" the bodyguard ordered, he was dressed semi-casually, he had a blazer on him, but was wearing jeans and a pair of running shoes, I comply and lower my satchel, I take notice of the bodyguard, he's also carrying a knife, six inches, curved, but slightly serrated, mainly for stabbing or cutting, it focused on offence, not defence. I hear the courier whimper slightly behind the bodyguard, the bodyguard also notices this and for a split second turns his head to him.

That spilt second was all I needed, I let my instinct take control and use the training that has been so deeply ingrained into me, I step forward and grab the slide of the Glock with my left hand and hit the magazine eject button, releasing the magazine which I catch with my right hand and throw down the alley, I then roll the bodyguard over me using his own momentum to catapult him into the ground, I then grab the Glock from his slackened grip, turn it around, push it into his forehead and pull the trigger, killing him with the remaining round. The round goes through his skull and I can see his eyes instantly bloodshot, the vessels exploded, he was truly dead. The sound was loud, but I don't think it carried up to the street above me. At this, the courier tries to scream, but he's utterly speechless at what just happened, I can see the fear in his eyes, he's truly a deer caught in the headlights, I drop the Glock, stand up and check myself for blood spray, a few specks on my jumper, but it's black, so it shouldn't be too obvious. I approach the courier who has now fallen to the ground and even though he's in a corner, is trying to push himself away from me; I kneel down to look him in the eyes.

"What's your name?" I ask him calmly, I know it seems like I'm taunting him, but I feel compelled to do this.

"D..Daniel" he answers, tears are going down his face now and he's started quietly sobbing

"Daniel, I'm truly sorry that this has to happen, but this is how it must happen; the work you're a part of is destroying the world and its people."

"Please...please." He begs me, the humanity that exists within me wants to let him go, but I know I can't, I take a deep breath and he closes his eyes. I flex my left wrist and the blade comes out, carefully hidden on the inside of my forearm, it extends about seven inches past my wrist and I plunge it into his heart, killing him instantly. I pull out the blade and look up at him, the look of fear is still on him, I life my hand and close his eyes, retract my blade and mutter "Rest in peace" under my breath. I then grab the pen drive from his neck and replace it with the identical one I have in my pocket, I also grab his laptop and pull out the hard drive and place it in my satchel, I also grab both the Glock, it's magazine and the bodyguard's knife and drop them down a nearby drain, I also grab their wallets and throw them down there as well, it won't last long, but the ruse will hopefully allow me enough time to get home. I shoulder my satchel, take one last look at them and move on.

I take no pride or joy in taking a life, the day I do is the day I know I'll be truly dead inside; the work I do isn't for my own benefit or ego, it's for the betterment of Man himself; I work by myself, but I'm never alone. I fight a war that's been raging behind the scenes for over two millennia; I work in the dark to serve the light. My name is Sam, and I am an Assassin. This is my story.


	2. Chapter 2

Jonathan Dubois was in a foul mood, his delivery was supposed to be here an hour ago; he was getting nervous, if the delivery had fallen into the hands of the Assassins, it would set back the company's work considerably. He reached for the phone at his desk and dialled the front desk, after two rings, the front desk manager.

"Yes sir?" came the manager's voice

"Has my delivery arrived yet?" Jonathan asked, his patience wearing thin already; He'd phoned down three times in the last hour, all with the same answer, and this was no different.

"I'm sorry sir, no deliveries or mail for you yet. I'll phone you immediately when it arrives though"

"See that you do." And with that, he angrily hung up and began pacing around his office yet again; hoping that somehow it would help his problems; though he knew it was false hope. It was becoming more and more likely that the courier was intercepted. He went to his desk and sat down and logged into the computer, his email alert flashed up after he logged in: he'd received emails since he last logged in. They were the usual, company reminders not to go talking about the affairs of the business to anyone (not that he needed reminding since they got that email about once a week) several were from news agencies asking for his comment on the recent fluoride scandal, not that he knew much about it, aside from the CEO's and people with elevated status, the companies affairs were heavily compartmentalised, no-one knew more than what happened in their department and anything that extended beyond it was carefully controlled. The only exception was this whole damn 'scandal' involving fluoride somewhere in the states. His knowledge was scarce as it is, but it was of no concern to him, he had his own hands full at the minute. He continued reading through the emails, deleting or forwarding them as necessary, until one caught his eye that was sent about an hour and a half ago. It was from his associate Michael Taylor in the police department and was titled 'Urgent'; he opened it and began reading:

_Jonathan,_

_I came across something today and I have a good feeling you'd like to know about it. We got a call today about two bodies found in an alleyway, wallets missing / at first glance, it appeared to be a mugging, albeit with some inconsistencies, but the victims were interesting, one of them has injuries indicating he was in a fight, and then executed with his own gun, and the other was huddled in a corner, curled up and a smell of urine around him, typical in high stress scenarios and at the moment of death, but he had a clean entry wound from a precise and smooth blade, and the initial autopsy report believe it to have cleanly cut the aorta. Bottom line, the department is investigating it as a mugging gone wrong, but to me, it appears to be the work of an Assassin, based on the skill and precision. We recovered their wallets and weapons belonging to the gunshot victim, there was a wallet with a company ID in them, the stab vic also had a flash drive around his neck and a laptop missing its hard drive, it looks forcibly removed. I figure it's important to the company so I'm sending them to you. The wallet, laptop, flash drive and autopsy report are currently en route to you, expect them around 3pm._

_May the Father of Understanding Guide you,_

_M._

Jonathan finished reading the email; it was good news and bad news. The assassins had apparently intercepted the courier, but instead of taking the flash drive, they had gone for the hard drive, a foolish move since the hard drive would be wiped after it was powered up again, a contingency plan that was put into effect last year as a countermeasure, the data loss to the company was minimal at best anyway since it auto connected to the servers when hooked up to the internet and uploaded any data changes. The only concern was how they were tracked on such short notice, but he would worry about that later, it was almost 3pm.

Jonathan had reached for his phone when it suddenly rang, he answered it promptly, it was the front desk.

"Sir? We have an officer here from the police department who says he has some documents for you?"

Jonathan gave a smile of relief "Good, send him up right away" and with that he hung up the phone

Michael opened the door and entered into his old acquaintances room, at 45, he was currently the captain of the homicide department, he'd left the company 15 years previously, but he always helped them out whenever possible or if he found something they might want to know, and as he had discovered at his time there, there wasn't much they didn't know or at the most, weren't aware of. Some of the police force they had blackmailed or pressured into helping them, but after all they gave Michael, he felt it was the least he could do to repay the company that gave him so much, especially his old friend Jonathan.

Jonathan greeted his old friend warmly and after exchanging brief pleasantries about Michael's wife and children, they got down to business.

"So what can you tell me that's off the books?" Jonathan asked, waving the autopsy report in front of him.

"The absence says a lot, it was definitely an assassin attack based on the lack of evidence and the evidence that _is_ there. It was either a two man operation, or solo. He's been trained quite well, he managed to disarm an armed man and execute him with a single round, meaning he had to have been spotted and close, so he may be sloppy. The courier seemed to have frozen in fear or rendered unconscious based on his position, the smell of urine and the lack of any defensive wounds; he was killed by a single stab wound that severed his aorta, dead in a minute. The hard drive from the laptop was forcibly removed, meaning he probably didn't kill them subtly and had to bolt it, he appears to have missed the flash drive, probably figured the laptop would be more valuable, wallet and weapons were found discarded nearby. I got on scene about three hours ago, and I emailed you two hours ago. That's really as much as I can tell you right now"

"Quite extensive" Jonathan said, impressed "I can see it was a good call to... relocate you" he smirked and flicked through the folder and pulled out the flash drive, he held it up to Michael

"Did you go through this?"

"I just checked content, to make sure it was there and not a forgery or blank" Michael said, looking uncomfortable "I've heard the stories about people who went snooping where they didn't belong."

Jonathan laughed "They're just stories Mike, but this information is particularly sensitive, given recent events"

"I'll not ask, anyway, I'd better go before people start asking me where evidence walked off to, not that I'll catch the bastards with the law, you guys can do it easier, and it'd be better for all of us anyway. Later Jonathan." And with that, he got up and left.

As soon as the door closed, Jonathan got up and plugged the drive into his computer; it would take a few moments to validate the computer as authorised and enable the data to be decrypted, all Michael saw was just the filenames, not the content. After thirty seconds, the machine beeped and opened the contents; he scanned through them until he found the file he wanted: "LRA-UPDATE" it stood for "Lineage Research and Acquisitions Update" he opened the file and a spreadsheet filled the page, in it was a list of people, their last known locations and the person of interest as well as some other information.

Jonathan was head of the European division of Lineage Research and Acquisition, a division of the Abstergo Corporation that specialised in the research of the heritage of people, primarily Assassins and Templar's and tracked their ancestry to see if it flagged any people of interest throughout history. The division's current objective was to capture or coerce persons of interest to participate in the Animus Project overseen by Alan Rikkin and headed by Warren Vidic. Jonathan didn't have the particulars for the project; he'd gained enough to understand it somehow involved using DNA to access the memories of a subject's ancestor. Again, the company did a good job keeping information strictly 'need-to-know' all the information he was given was the person's name, typically address or some other form of residence, and the particular ancestor in question. Jonathan figured logically that some of the people 'acquired' were related on some genetic level since some names cropped up repeatedly, some were familiar, like Marco Polo, others he'd never heard of, like "Altair" or something to that effect, he didn't concern himself with that though, it was beyond his pay.

He read through the latest names and copied the file to an email and sent it to the teams positioned throughout Europe, one in London, Germany, France and so on. Usually, it was a straightforward procedure, though occasionally, they got resistance, like an assassin who knows who he is or something, or just some joe-nobody who won't go without a fight. The information gathering could've been done on-site, but the policy was to get visual confirmation of each target so as to make the information more reliable, ironically, this had cost two employees their lives, though their deaths would help the company considerably. He continued to read the spreadsheet and marked the High Value Individuals to the company. He had just sent the email when he noticed something peculiar, re-reading the names, he noticed some of them were based in Georgia and Israel, they were part of the Asia division, not Europe. He gave it some thought and decided he would investigate this later; right now he had some of the current missions to check up on.


End file.
